Strong
by haveyounomercy
Summary: Lambo will protect I-Pin, because I-Pin doesn't like weak men. One-shot, TYL!Lambo/TYL!I-Pin.


**A/N:** Sorry for the crappy action writing, I just adore this couple too much.

o~

I-Pin received the first love confession of her life when she was sixteen in an empty classroom with cherry blossoms fluttering around outside, signalling the signs of spring and youth and sunshine-it was all so disgustingly _perfect_ and totally wrong.

She faintly remembered a time when she would have drop-kicked the boy in front of her without even listening to him, a time when she was less patient and even less interested in the opposite sex. But she was different now, having understood the power of listening, so she stood still and quiet as Hiroguchi-kun bumbled and blushed his way through his confession.

At the end, she bowed with her back straight. "I'm sorry," she said slowly, "But I'm not interested in dating." The Japanese words sounded harsh, but she supposed that a rejection in any letters would not be pretty. Hiroguchi-kun just blushed some more and I-Pin was vaguely reminded of a younger Tsuna.

Her eyes narrowed as he rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, tripping on his feet as he practically ran out of the classroom. So similar, yet so different. I-Pin smiled a little at the image of Tsuna's face, full of kindness and compassion and strength.

"Are you done?" Lambo's lazy voice floated into the classroom and I-Pin nodded, picking up her schoolbag and walking over to the doorway. She gave his loosened tie and untucked shirt a pointed look and he shrugged. "So did you say yes?"

I-Pin didn't even grant him an answer as she walked past him. He caught up with her soon enough, pulling out his cell phone while yawning. His fingers jabbed and pushed at buttons and she sighed, not understanding the marvel of texting.

"What's wrong?" Lambo asked, giving her a crooked smile. "Jealous?"

"You have better things to do than fool around with Shika-senpai."

Lambo snorted, snapping his cell phone shut. "It's not Shika-senpai today, it's Kaede-chan!" His arm came up to tug on I-Pin's sleeve, pouting. "You know Shika-senpai tried to hit me? Apparently she found about me and other girls and she got all upset."

"She should know that you can't handle being chained down." I-Pin muttered, feeling sorry for the poor girl. "You should at least have let her hit you."

"But she wanted to slap me!" Lambo gasped, "No one is allowed to touch my beautiful face but Reborn."

I-Pin shook his hand off of her as they left the school grounds. "That's because Reborn is stronger than you."

"Exactly." Lambo smirked, his obsession with Reborn still burning. "I'll allow you to hit me too."

She raised a dainty eyebrow, wondering if that was an invitation to spar. "I have no reason to hit you, though." Turning around to properly listen to whatever nonsense explanation Lambo was about to tell her, I-Pin barely caught the shine of metal glint in the setting sun from the inside of a house before she threw an arm across Lambo's shoulder and pressed both of them to the ground as the sound of a gunshot cracked above their heads.

"How many?" Lambo wheezed, having landed sharply on his tailbone.

"I have no idea." I-Pin answered quietly, both of them lying still. "We should run and tell Boss."

Lambo sighed. "That's what they want. I'll meet you back at school." Before I-Pin could disagree, he grabbed her arm and squeezed. "We're strong too, right? We can handle a few assassins." I-Pin thought about it for a second, knowing that if they didn't move soon, the sniper would have already re-positioned. She was hesitant about leaving Lambo, since they always fought and fled together, but separation seemed necessary at this point. She nodded.

They rolled apart from each other in the next second, springing up and darting in different directions as another gunshot hit the schoolbags they'd left behind. I-Pin tried to trace out a route of the neighbourhood in her mind, zig-zagging her way through the streets and training her ears for the sound of chasers.

Two men, both armed, she guessed as she increased her pace. There were loud footsteps in the distance, and I-Pin felt herself torn between stopping to fight and running haphazardly like a fool.

There were still civilians around in the neighbourhood however, so she couldn't risk getting them involved. With that thought, I-Pin jumped over a large concrete wall and climbed up a large park tree. She watched as her chasers ran into view, three men with guns and shining red crests on their shoulders.

_Gigliani_, she recognized as a bug crawled its way onto her shoe. They were supposed to be a rather small group, but it seemed that they weren't planning on staying that way for long.

I-Pin frowned. Thinking to kidnap any one of the Vongola was a mistake, even the youngest ones such as Lambo and herself.

Lambo's lazy smile punctured her thoughts as she remembered that she had to get back to the school. She waited a few more seconds before the trio rounded a corner before she flicked the bug off of her and raced in the opposite direction.

She couldn't help but worry for him as she ducked and skipped through a more tree-infested area. Lambo had certainly gotten stronger emotionally, but he had started to whine and complain during their training sessions. He only seemed to take sparring with Reborn seriously, but even then he was quick to admit defeat in front of the barrel of the ex-Acrobaleno's gun.

He never forgot his place as a Guardian, however. I-Pin's teeth clenched as she considered the possibility of him deciding to fight instead of flee. Was he even strong enough yet?

A burst of lightning alerted her attention and she didn't hesitate to change her path to run full force towards the target. Turning the corner, she opened her mouth only to snap it shut and jump in the air as an unknown man shot a ball of lightning towards her.

"I see you fell for the bait." The man grinned, teeth pointy and white. I-Pin glared, getting into her fighting stance. The man only flexed his muscles in his black tank top. "My name is Hulos," he introduced.

"I don't care." I-Pin replied carefully. The lightning he used was most likely coming out of the gun he was wielding. "Are you a Lightning Guardian?"

Hulos twirled a small gun between his fingers. "Maybe, maybe not." He didn't flinch before shooting at her again, this time catching I-Pin a little off-guard as she soared back into the sky. She then changed her direction while in the air to dodge another lightning bullet, instead kicking herself off a wall to try and land a kick onto Hulos.

"Try a little harder," Hulos said cheerfully as he blocked her foot with his arm, leaving her no choice but to land a little ways away. "I'll give you credit, though. That kick hurt a lot more than the other boy's."

I-Pin pushed down the rage in her stomach. "I don't like liars. Lambo doesn't kick."

Hulos chuckled good-naturedly. "He does when his arms are broken."

She didn't realize what sound she made, but his amused expression angered her enough to jump into the air and kick again, except this time when he blocked it she propelled herself off of it to land behind him, running away in another haphazard pattern. She had to get back to school.

When she realized that he wasn't following her, her heart felt heavy. A man with a plan was ten times scarier than a man who ran blindly. I-Pin knew that she was probably falling into a trap, but she couldn't leave Lambo alone. Besides, she still could call for help later on if she needed to.

The marathon sessions she had taken with Ryouhei-san had really helped, she thought to herself as she sped along the streets, not even fatigued yet. Her breathing was a little heavier when she arrived at the school, but she pushed on until she found herself in the gym.

Lambo was nowhere to be seen, and I-Pin felt that same heavy feeling as she tore through the other parts of the school where he might be, from the nurse's room to the auditorium before she heard the sound of gunshots above her.

"The roof!" She cried as she gave up on running and simply jumped up the banisters of the stairs in mere seconds. Her usual composed self was falling apart, she noticed. Perhaps it was because of Hulos, but it was more likely because Lambo wasn't with her. I-Pin missed her eagerness to fight, his determination to prove to the other Guardians that he was strong, his frantic movements as he tried to hide how scared he was-

"You're here." Hulos waved to her as she burst open the door to the roof. I-Pin felt like cursing at falling for his trap again. "A little late, though."

I-Pin's eyes darted across the roof, and her breath caught in her throat as she stared at a mop of curly black hair on the ground. Her next movements were unconscious as she darted forward with a speed that she didn't know she possessed, somehow elbowing Hulos aside to pick up Lambo's body while kicking a random gunholder in the throat. As her brain caught up with her mind, she dodged a bullet and secured Lambo to her side before sharply tossing a meat bun bomb towards the other henchman.

"Impressive," Hulos grinned as he rubbed the area where she'd elbowed him. He eyed his two limp henchmen. "Don't be worried, it's only me now."

"You're exactly the reason why she's worried," Lambo muttered as he groggily pushed himself to stand, pushing I-Pin away. "We didn't finish our fight yet."

Hulos looked unimpressed as Lambo swayed in front of him. I-Pin stared at the blood that was staining Lambo's school shirt.

"Don't make a move," Lambo told I-Pin with a grimace. "This is my fight. He uses lightning too."

"You're being ridiculous." I-Pin told him seriously. "You're going to lose."

Lambo clenched his hands, and his horns glowed. "No. Because I'm strong."

I-Pin watched as he roared, and she watched as Hulos shot him in the knee. She watched them both trade blows, smiling a little when Hulos unexpectedly got blasted in the face. Her smile faded as she watched Lambo lose precision with his attacks, eventually falling to the floor again. That was when she calmly stood in front of his charred and bloody body, feeling very little pity.

"Thanks," Lambo said faintly.

"Idiot." I-Pin chided before disappearing into the air. Her kicks were mostly deflected, but she was agile enough to dodge every bullet and when Hulos was distracted she even managed to kick his gun out of his hand before he caught onto her foot and slammed her down to the ground.

In the distance, she heard Lambo cry out. Hulos appeared above her, and she grunted as he kicked her in the side. She didn't let him escape, wrapping her own legs around his and leaping up to push his shoulders back, this time trapping him on the ground under her.

Hulos sneered, one meaty hand coming up to punch her but she caught his fist as if it were nothing but a cat toy.

"You made me angry," I-Pin said quietly. And then, in a manner totally unlike her, she brought her head back and slammed it into his forehead. After she stood up, she stomped on his unconscious body a couple of times for good measure. She felt a tinge of satisfaction as he limply coughed up blood.

I-Pin made sure to destroy his lightning gun before going over to sit next to Lambo. He wiped the blood off of his cheek and laughed at her stern expression.

"They told me they had gotten you," Lambo said as I-Pin took out her handkerchief. "Liars."

"The weak use tricks when they lack proper strength." I-Pin reprimanded as she dabbed at his face, which was swollen and red. She rested her hand on his forehead, sighing. "Why do you do this?"

Lambo cocked his head.

I-Pin huffed at his ignorance. "Why do you skip training? Why do you separate yourself from me? We are stronger together."

"I don't want to be stronger together," Lambo murmured. "I want to be stronger by myself. I train by myself now."

And I-Pin knew that, she knew because Lambo always showed up with new bruises and tear-stained cheeks at night and she wondered who was training with him and she was always disappointed that they were just partners, no longer friends.

"Why," she said after thinking for a moment, because this was the question that has been bothering her for ten something years, "Why do you protect me when I'm stronger than you?"

Lambo turned his head to the side, hiding his expression from her. She felt guilty then, and supposed that she wouldn't be getting an answer out of him.

Finally, as she was about to stand up, he said very quietly, "You don't like weak men."

I-Pin silently folded her bloodied handkerchief and mulled over his answer. Lambo shakily sat up and straightened his school blazer and with a little help from I-Pin, limped off of the roof and texted Tsuna to go and straighten out the mess they had left behind them.

On their way home, I-Pin found the three men that had been following her and left them tied together to a streetlamp. Lambo watched as he drank the coffee that I-Pin bought for him from the convenience store.

When they got back, Kyouko and Haru fawned over them while Gokudera screamed at them for twenty minutes until Yamamoto finally dragged him away.

"Lambo," I-Pin called out as the boy left to go to his room for the night. Lambo turned to look at her with teary eyes, having cried the entire time they cleaned his wounds.

I-Pin paused to formulate her next sentence, for some reason her Japanese failing her while her brain filled with Chinese. Lambo waited patiently.

"I," I-Pin finally started, "Dislike weak men." Lambo flinched. I-Pin continued, "But I like fighting with you, so don't leave me next time."

He stared at her for a while, before she tilted her head and he laughed his lazy laugh and nodded. And that was the end of that.

o~

I-Pin received the second love confession of her life when she was twenty-three in an abandoned warehouse while the smell of burnt hair and meat buns filled her sinuses. Lambo fussed over a little scratch she had gotten while she stared at his positively pristine suit. She couldn't help but feel like she had lost.

"I love you," Lambo said with a little fear and a lot of hope as he pressed a bandaid to her arm. "And I want us to be partners forever." He wiped his forehead in relief, grinning. "Finally, I get to say it!"

I-Pin looked at the silly little cow bandaid that did little to hide the knife cut in her forearm. "Why did you wait so long?" She smiled at his shock. "I never thought you were weak."

And as Lambo squeezed her into a hug in the middle of a dozen dead bodies, his tears streamed down her neck and I-Pin felt that in that moment, everything was _perfect_.


End file.
